Police reject finding the Tom Phillips case could have ended earlier
Police have rejected the public inquiry finding that the Tom Phillips case could have been prevented or ended earlier.
Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said police did not accept that finding. She said it is not known whether different decisions would have led to a different result, according to RNZ. She said she remains proud of what investigators did to recover the children.
Police said they accept the recommendations from the inquiry report. That position was set out in a statement from Police Commissioner Richard Chambers, listed by NZ Police as a National News item dated 15 September 2026.
The case ended with Phillips' death in a shootout with police a year ago, almost four years after he left Marokopa with his children. The Independent Police Conduct Authority, the independent body that checks police actions, found the shooting was justified in a report published on 20 August 2026, according to the IPCA.
A police officer shot and killed Thomas Phillips at about 3.30am on Monday 8 September 2025 on Te Anga Road. The Authority examined that shooting and concluded it was justified.
One officer was critically injured in the Monday morning shooting at Waitomo. Police said at the time that Phillips and his children had been hiding before the shooting, according to NZ Police. A separate account said the officer was shot in the head at close range before other officers fired back, killing a man believed to be Phillips.
Phillips had been missing since December 2021. Police later said he robbed a farm supply store in rural Waikato that Monday before he opened fire on officers.
The children were recovered after the shooting. At a press conference that Monday afternoon, then acting Deputy Commissioner Rogers said police had not yet located them. Specialist officers searching bush near Waitomo later located them, police said.
Oranga Tamariki chief executive Amanda Malu said the agency, the Ministry for Children, failed the children, their mother and older sisters.
The broader context here is how agencies answer an adverse inquiry. It is like agreeing to a repair plan while saying you cannot know if it would have prevented the breakdown. Police have accepted the recommendations but dispute that earlier action would have changed the result.
Looking at what this means for accountability, the test now is delivery. Police have committed to the recommendations. Oranga Tamariki has admitted failure. Ministers, select committees of MPs who scrutinise government work, and oversight bodies will judge both on what changes and whether progress is tracked publicly to completion.
